Over the course of his residency at the Atelier Calder, 2009 Calder Prize laureate Tomás Saraceno has continued to develop his project Cloud Cities-Air Port City, a proposed use of space that empowers individuals, repositioning them beyond the confines of existing authoritative constructs. Saraceno describes the project as: “a structure that seeks to challenge today’s political, social, cultural and military restrictions in an attempt to reestablish new concepts of synergy. Up in the sky there will be this cloud, a habitable platform that floats in the air, changing form and merging with other platforms, just as clouds do. It will fly through the atmosphere pushed by the winds, both local and global, in an attempt to equalize the (social) temperature and differences in pressure.”

The opening celebration for “Cloud Cities” will take place on 19 – 20 June 2010, with an experimentation of a solar balloon flight on Sunday morning from 5:00 – 7:00, weather permitting. The Atelier Calder will be open to visitors on subsequent weekends from 14:00 – 18:00, and other days by appointment, until 4 July 2010.

Curator Rodrigo Alonso writes: “Tomás Saraceno’s work defies traditional notions of space, time, gravity, consciousness and perception through architectural, social and communitarian means that are utopian and participatory in nature. The sky and the earth are interchangeable in his installations, in which gardens float and people achieve their longstanding desire to fly. Inspired by an interest in affecting change in the way we live and experience reality, each work is an invitation to conceive of alternative ways of knowing, feeling and interacting with others. Concurrently, Saraceno appeals to the creative faculty of his viewers, involving them in situations and actions that demand their ingenuity, participation and responsibility. The projects evidence relationships and introduce interdependent spaces that emphasize the ecological character of not only natural environments but also social spaces. Above all, the works show us that the possibility to transform the world is always within reach for those who are ready to collaborate in its design and construction. The work of Tomás Saraceno is perhaps the set of tools that we were missing.”

The Atelier Calder was established in 1989 as an artist-in-residency program. For six-month periods, international artists are invited to live and work in Calder’s house and studio, benefiting from technical and financial support to help them realize undertakings that might otherwise prove daunting. The Atelier Calder receives financial support from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication (DRAC Centre), the Région Centre, the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) and the Calder Foundation.

The Calder Prize, created in 2005 by the Calder Foundation and the Scone Foundation, is awarded biannually to honor a living artist who has completed exemplary and innovative early work and who has demonstrated the potential to make a major contribution to the field. The Prize consists of 50,000 USD, a six-month residency at the Atelier Calder and the facilitation of a gift of one of the artist’s defining works to a major public collection. Past recipients are Tomás Saraceno (2009), Zilvinas Kempinas (2007) and Tara Donovan (2005).

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